Dead card?

monkey333

Senior member
Apr 20, 2007
785
5
81
I know there's prob not an easy answer for this but here goes.

The other day my video froze and system locked up. Rebooted and got a bunch of 0's on the screen and the boot process seemed to stop.

Put card in another mb and got a bunch of garbage on the screen there too. I assume that the card is bad. What would have done that? Just a card failure or something I was doin?

Guess I need to replace it, it's a 8800 gt 512' suggestions? Nothing cutting edge (expensive) was thinking 150ish...
 

ahenkel

Diamond Member
Jan 11, 2009
5,357
3
81
You could try baking it. A lot of people have success with the 8800gt when it starts doing things like your card does. I know personally it worked twice for me.
 

mlc

Senior member
Jan 22, 2005
445
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before you replace it.. did you check to ensure the fan is working properly, and there is no dust in play on the heat sink , etc. ? Heat is the usual culprit

Otherwise, another common issue over time, is that sometimes the soldered connection points on the board become suspect, which is why the other poster suggested the baking trick fix... But if you do get adventerous, do your homework, as there are toxic gases, etc. that come into play, and components can melt, if you don't break the card down properly before trying it...

In the 150 range.. you can do very nicely... The best cards in that range are probably the nvidia 460 offerings with 768MB of memory.. which would be a 3 or 4 step jump from your current card.

Something like this, would do very nicely, at around $130
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121390
 

Seero

Golden Member
Nov 4, 2009
1,456
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I know there's prob not an easy answer for this but here goes.

The other day my video froze and system locked up. Rebooted and got a bunch of 0's on the screen and the boot process seemed to stop.

Put card in another mb and got a bunch of garbage on the screen there too. I assume that the card is bad. What would have done that? Just a card failure or something I was doin?

Guess I need to replace it, it's a 8800 gt 512' suggestions? Nothing cutting edge (expensive) was thinking 150ish...
Seems some ICs gone bad. Since it is surely the card as you tried on 2 mobo, simply go get another card.

What PSU do you have? They are a few options from AMD and Nvidia that suits your need and support Dx11, within your budget.
 

monkey333

Senior member
Apr 20, 2007
785
5
81
It's only a 450, so I may need to update that as well, CPU is a 6600 c2 quad..
 

Seero

Golden Member
Nov 4, 2009
1,456
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It's only a 450, so I may need to update that as well, CPU is a 6600 c2 quad..
The following is a website that calculates what PSU you will probably need for your setup.
http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

To match the performance of 8800, Redeon 5770 or GTX450 should be an small upgrade, both around 150 USD and support Dx11. In fact, I believe Radeon 6850 and GTX 460 768Mb are also within that price range. IMO, Radeon 6xxx and GTX 460 are the bang on the buck cards. Dig a bit in this forum to find different opinions.
 

monkey333

Senior member
Apr 20, 2007
785
5
81
The following is a website that calculates what PSU you will probably need for your setup.
http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

To match the performance of 8800, Redeon 5770 or GTX450 should be an small upgrade, both around 150 USD and support Dx11. In fact, I believe Radeon 6850 and GTX 460 768Mb are also within that price range. IMO, Radeon 6xxx and GTX 460 are the bang on the buck cards. Dig a bit in this forum to find different opinions.


that site will come in handy, thanks!
 

monkey333

Senior member
Apr 20, 2007
785
5
81
So I blew out the card, plugged it in and it ran with the generic drivers, once I installed the nvidia drivers, windows would refuse to boot, just like before, WTH?!?
 

mlc

Senior member
Jan 22, 2005
445
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0
You can't get into windows at all ? Can you get into Safe Mode? If so, try downloading either Driver Sweeper or CCLeaner...

1) Uninstall all of the old drivers via Windows
2) then run the Driver Sweeper or CCLeaner .. and check the option to remove the old nvidia display drivers
3) then reboot, and try reinstalling the nvidia drivers again
 

Seero

Golden Member
Nov 4, 2009
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So I blew out the card, plugged it in and it ran with the generic drivers, once I installed the nvidia drivers, windows would refuse to boot, just like before, WTH?!?
Did you put in a new card?

Generic driver only use a small portion of the video card, like "dos prompt" and its driver is like an OS with all features turn on. Without its driver, GPU is barely touched, if used at all. All drawings is done by CPU, and all the video card needs to do is to pass it on to monitor.

Note that a defective video card can damage motherboard, it is not a good idea to keep trying after knowing it is bad.
 
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mlc

Senior member
Jan 22, 2005
445
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0
.. yeah, in that price range, you should be able to find a GTX 460(1GB) or a 6850 card .. which is a step or two better in terms of performance...

good luck
 

tweakboy

Diamond Member
Jan 3, 2010
9,517
2
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www.hammiestudios.com
I agree heat is the issue OR the heat did some damage to the card. Can't you RMA it in ?

Maybe when you buy your 460 768mb for 150 you can keep your 8800 GT for use as physx card.... I dont know what mobo you have tho.... gl